A transportation network for vehicle systems can include several interconnected main routes on which separate vehicles travel between locations to deliver or receive payloads. For example, a transportation network may be formed from interconnected railroad tracks with rail vehicles traveling along the tracks. The vehicles may travel according to schedules that dictate where and when the vehicles are to travel within the transportation network. The schedules may be coordinated with each other to arrange for certain vehicles to arrive at various locations in the transportation network at desired times and/or in a desired order.
The transportation network may include a vehicle yard or route hub, such as a rail yard or a distribution warehouse that includes a relatively dense grouping of routes or locations where several vehicles can congregate, deliver payloads, receive new payloads, perform maintenance, refuel, or the like. While in the vehicle yard, vehicles are assigned or paired with payloads based on power or ability of the vehicle to pull to carry the payload regardless on the overall energy or emission efficiency of available vehicles or the availability of vehicles in other vehicle yards within the transportation network. Thus, a need exists to increase the operation efficiency of the vehicle yards.
As more vehicles in transportation networks become electrified (e.g., the vehicles are propelled using electric energy stored onboard the vehicles), the need to accurately calculate and manage the energy stored by the vehicles to complete trips will increase. While existing technologies can assist in planning for the fuel carried by vehicles and the refueling of vehicles to ensure on-time arrival of the vehicles, these technologies are not applicable to the planning of electric energy storage onboard vehicles as refueling a vehicle consumes significantly less time than recharging energy storage devices onboard vehicles. Because refueling of a vehicle can be completed over a significantly shorter time period than recharging a vehicle, the time needed to recharge vehicles may be a more significant factor in the planning of movements of vehicles in a transportation network.
Additionally, vehicles powered by onboard energy storage devices may be more limited in distances that the vehicles can travel on a full charge than fuel-consuming vehicles of the same mass. The shorter travel distances of the onboard-energy-storage vehicles also can significantly impact the planning of movements of the vehicles in the transportation network.